Five Power Companies Commit to Clean Energy, Cap Greenhouse Gases

Five U.S. power companies have committed to use clean energy sources
and to cap their carbon dioxide emissions, the World Wildlife Fund
(WWF) announced on February 11th. The five companies include Austin Energy of
Texas; Burlington Electric Department of Vermont; the Sacramento
Municipal Utility District (SMUD) of California; Waverly Light and
Power of Iowa; and FPL Group, Inc., which operates Florida Power and
Light. The five companies joined the "WWF PowerSwitch! Challenge,"
which calls for power companies to support binding limits on national
carbon dioxide emissions and requires them to undertake one or more of
the following action targets: using renewable energy as the source for
20 percent of their electricity sold by 2020, increasing their energy
efficiency by 15 percent by 2020, or retiring the least efficient half
of coal generation by 2020. SMUD committed to the renewable energy
goal, FPL Group and Waverly Light and Power committed to the energy
efficiency goal, and Austin Energy and Burlington Electric committed
to both of those goals. See the WWF press release.